Atheist/Agnostic

Nontheist Billboard Greets Motorists

Fox News transcript from “America’s Election HQ,” June 5, 2008 over a billboard that promotes atheism:

MEGYN KELLY, CO-HOST : “Don’t believe in God? You’re not the alone.” That’s what it says on a 20-by-60 foot sign sitting above one of the busiest roads in the country. Many people now want that sign to come down.
Just a short while ago, Fox’s Douglas Kennedy spoke to the man responsible for putting it up. He joins us now. Hi Douglas.
DOUGLAS KENNEDY, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Hey, Megan.

This guy is from an atheist organization in Philadelphia. He says he’s just trying to reach out to fellow non-believers. His critics are calling it a sign of the times.

KENNEDY: The billboard has heavenly-looking clouds and reassures drivers they are not alone. No, it’s not an advertisement for a fundamentalist church. It’s the exact opposite.

Why did you put up this billboard?

STEVE RADE, ATHEIST: I believe there are a lot of people who question their belief in God.

KENNEDY: Steve Rade is from the Greater Philadelphia Coalition of Reason, the atheist group that erected the billboard on Interstate-95 just outside the “City of Brotherly Love.” He says he’s just trying to bring atheists together.

RADE: People want to know that they’re not alone, that there is groups they can speak to and join up with.

KENNEDY: Recently, societies dedicated to atheism have claimed record membership and books on atheism have become top reads on the “New York Times” bestseller’s list. Critics call it a disturbing trend.

This billboard in Philadelphia seems to represent a trend of a new assertiveness, even aggressiveness on the part of atheists.

Peter Sprigg is from the Family Research Council, a Washington, D.C.- based lobbying group that promotes conservative values. He says behind the books and billboards is a secularist agenda.

PETER SPRIGG, FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL: Atheists are very vigorous in promoting the separation of church and state. But with the extreme way that they interpret that concept, you would basically eliminate every mention of God from the public square. And that would amount to an establishment of atheism.

KENNEDY: The family research council saying you’re promoting a secularist agenda, what do you say?

RADE: I say that we are promoting a secularist agenda. We do believe in a separation of church and state. And we believe that this is the way the country should be run.

KENNEDY: And Rade admits he would prefer if everyone was an atheist. He says the world would be a better place without institutionalized religion, Bill and Megyn.

BILL HEMMER, CO-HOST: We can find some people who disagree with that?

KELLY: I should think so.

Douglas Kennedy thanks so much.

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There Are, in Fact, Atheists in Foxholes

“The military’s virulent religious intolerance could be eradicated tomorrow with swift sanctions against transgressors. Instead, it’s winked at, and those caught proselytizing suffer no consequence.”

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Does the US Military Want a Christian Nation?

It’s an old saying (from WWII) that there are no atheists in foxholes. It turns out this isn’t true. And there have been more than a couple public retractions to atheist soldiers over this remark by journalists. This quip is really nothing more than folksy bigotry against people without beliefs in the supernatural. A popular watchdog organization has been tracking the problem of evangelical proselytizing in the military–especially at the Pentagon–and rampant throughout the armed forces.

New York Times - “They don’t trust you because they think you are unreliable and might break, since you don’t have God to rely on,” Specialist Hall said of those who proselytize in the military. “The message is, ‘It’s a Christian nation, and you need to recognize that.’”
Soldier Sues Army, Saying His Atheism Led to Threats

CBS News - A new documentary examines religious discrimination in the U.S. military. Should American forces be fighting for God as well as country?
Fighting For God AND Country

In 2006, this very blog posted a story about this very problem titled “Military Evangelical Christianity “Egregious Beyond the Pale.” From that article: “It’s egregious beyond the pale,” said Mikey Weinstein, president and founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. “We apparently have a radicalized, evangelical Christian Pentagon within the rest of the Pentagon.”

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Parents Pick Prayer Over Docs; Girl Dies

WESTON, Wis. (AP) - Police are investigating an 11-year-old girl’s death from an undiagnosed, treatable form of diabetes after her parents chose to pray for her rather than take her to a doctor.

Full story…

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Fla. State Board May Label Evolution Standards As ‘Theory’

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The words “scientific theory of” may be placed in front of the term “evolution” in proposed new science standards the State Board of Education is scheduled to vote on Tuesday. The option of applying that label to all scientific theories mentioned in the new standards will be offered to the board as a possible compromise, Department of Education spokesman Tom Butler said Friday.

Full story…

Update: Feb 20, 2008 - Evolution Controversy Settled, In Theory

Last week, the Florida Department of Education introduced the words “scientific theory” to the description of evolution as a compromise for those against the standards.

Full story…

I recall this strategy didn’t work out too well for the Wisconsin school board which tried to adopt this policy. They had placed stickers on text books with the words “just a theory.” However, it is commendable that the text of the Florida science statement is so clear in its support of the important place Evolution has in biological sciences.

Second Update: Mar 3, 2008 - Will the battle on science and evolution move to the Florida Legislature?

In an attempt to defy the newly approved state science standards, Florida Senator Rhonda Storms has proposed a bill that would allow teachers to contradict the teaching of evolution. Her bill states that ‘Every public school teacher in the state’s K-12 school system shall have the affirmative right and freedom to objectively present scientific information relevant to the full range of scientific views regarding biological and chemical evolution in connection with teaching any prescribed curriculum regarding chemical or biological origins.’ The bill’s main focus is on protecting teachers who want to adopt alternative teaching plans from sanction, and to allow teachers the freedom to teach whatever they wish, even if it is in opposition to current standards.

Full story…

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Apologists Ask Churches to Step Up Response to Militant Atheism

“As more atheist-centered books and movies make their way to mainstream culture, two best-selling Christian apologists are encouraging churches to better equip their congregation to respond to what they call a more outspoken and “confident” atheism.” I find the funniest part of this article to be: “The arguments are not really new but the ferociousness.” Again no new arguments, but rather that atheists are mean and ferocious for standing up for a point of view. Yet, atheists are given the label “militant” which is complete hyperbole and dangerous nonsense. It is an attempt to cast atheism as a dangerous physical threat, which it isn’t.

Full story…

I mean let’s be fair here. Atheists aren’t bombing churches. They aren’t setting fire to people’s houses. They haven’t run through the streets with AK47s. Atheists have not formed an inquisition. They aren’t pulling people from their houses. No one has been scuffed, scratched, or even inconvenienced by atheists. In fact all these so-called militant atheists have done is written some books and essays and for the most part attempt to utilize reason against the unreasonable. If churches have to scramble to defend themselves from reason, then it says more about the state of religion than about the state of atheism.

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The Myth of New Atheism

It began with a high-profile Wired article describing a “new band of intellectual brothers” in 2006 entitled The Church of the Non-believers. This article heralded Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and Daniel Dennett as being the figureheads of a new mounting crusade against theism. These new renegade atheists, according to the author, are calling us all out and are shocking in that “they condemn not just belief in God but respect for belief in God.” And he takes it obnoxiously far in Wired fashion calling atheists lonely fundamentalists who do not doubt their own beliefs. In this article Gary Wolf wrote: “The New Atheists have castigated fundamentalism and branded even the mildest religious liberals as enablers of a vengeful mob. Everybody who does not join them is an ally of the Taliban. But, so far, their provocation has failed to take hold.”

Well that was 2006. It seems that the provocation is taking hold. Shortly after in early 2007 the Wall Street Journal ran the editorial Without God, Gall Is Permitted which disparages “shallow” modern-day atheists for not being charming enough. Sam Schulman writes “Modern atheists have no new arguments, and they lack their forebears’ charm.” Articles like this cast atheism as a group in society that has nefarious goals against the mainstream. Writers call the new atheists intolerant and angry. And they denounce the new atheists for not having any new ideas, but just recycling old philosophical arguments. A recent blog article written by Rev. Marty Fields, pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church, continues the public charge against angry atheists and describes atheists as inept, gasping for air, and desperate.

Recently, a book was released by Vox Day on the subject of New Atheism called The Irrational Atheist which devotes most of its pages to specifically discrediting Hitchens, Harris, and Dawkins (notably absent from the harangue is Dennett). This book attempts to discredit Atheism with logic, moral arguments, and statistical evidence (such as the mind-bogglingly useless assertion that “Sexually abused girls are 55 times more likely to commit suicide than girls raised Catholic”). As though Atheism promotes the sexual abuse of girls. Overall the theme of this book is to make the case that decent moral and ethical behavior requires religious belief. Arguments of this sort attempt to make belief in Christian God an ethical issue, which it isn’t.

At the end of what Gary Wolf makes sound like a journey to the core of his being, he concludes these trivialities on the subject of New Atheism: “Myself, I’ve decided to refuse the call. The irony of the New Atheism - this prophetic attack on prophecy, this extremism in opposition to extremism - is too much for me.” Wolf makes New Atheism into something it’s not. A belief system. New Atheism is to me the same as old atheism. Since the Enlightenment some people have spoken up for the fact that they themselves have not found evidence of nor have experience with gods and superstition in the world. If New Atheism comes down purely to attitude, then even attitude is nothing new. Look at the passionate and eloquently outspoken Robert Ingersoll. Meet the New Atheists. Same as the old Atheists.

I contend New Atheism is a myth. Atheists are people who — for whatever reason — do not have belief in a deity. It would be identical to placing a label on people who do not collect butterflies. The idea that atheists are insincere or unethical because they do not see what theists see is immoral in itself. Atheism is and always has been a reaction to theism. The louder theism becomes, the louder atheism will need to become. If the government suddenly promoted a political agenda based around collecting stamps then those who disagreed would be cast as or identified as aphilatelists. The rise of so-called New Atheism can only be a result of a rise in religious fervor. In other words, there is no New Atheism. There is actually New Theism. And that is the real problem and should be the real focus. The label New Atheism is another smear campaign against people who simply say they do not see the invisible monster in the room. People like Gary Wolf are their enablers.

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Atheism is not a Religion

“We are all born atheists. There is no such thing as a Christian child or a Muslim child or a Buddhist child, just as there is no such thing as a Republican child or Democratic child. These designations are the result of indoctrination by culture.”

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12 Florida Counties Have Passed Anti-Evolution Resolutions in Their School Boards

Yes, even after Dover, PA, some school boards can’t get enough lawyerin. This story is incredible notable for how little press it has received. The Florida Citizens for Science blog writes:

“Wait a minute. Did I read that right? Eleven other counties passed anti-evolution resolutions? How in the world did that escape any real public notice until now? I’m only aware of three right now. I can understand a few school boards hiding in the shadows and only attracting the attention of their little weekly newspapers. But 12 total? TWELVE?!”

Full story…

Posted in Evolution/Creationism | 2 Comments »

Think the “Christmas Resolution” was Bad? Check Out H. Res. 888

While the recent House of Representatives “Christmas resolution” was being covered and discussed ad nauseum on countless websites, blogs, and elsewhere, another far more heinous resolution was introduced, one which, unbelievably, does not appear to have been noticed by anyone.

On December 18, 2007, Congressman Randy Forbes (R-VA) introduced H. Res. 888, a resolution “Affirming the rich spiritual and religious history of our Nation’s founding and subsequent history and expressing support for designation of the first week in May as ‘American Religious History Week’ for the appreciation of and education on America’s history of religious faith.”

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